AGE DIFFERENCES IN SOCIAL DISCOUNTING AND CHARITABLE GIVING IN A US SAMPLE

Abstract Social discounting describes the tendency to show less generosity to more socially distant recipients. With respect to age differences, prior studies (Pornpattananangkul et al., 2019; Lin & Zhang, 2020) found that older adults showed more generosity to distant others (i.e., lower social discounting rates) than younger adults. However, prior research relied on small samples, compared extreme age groups, and focused on Asian countries. To examine generalizability, this pre-registered study examined social discounting and charitable giving in a U.S. adult life-span sample (N = 426, age 18-96, Mage = 50.93, SDage = 19.51, 51% female, 61% non-Hispanic White). The social discounting measure was adapted from Jones and Rachlin (2006) and involved five social distances (1, 5, 10, 50, 100) on a 100-point scale (0 = closest, 100 = most distant). For each social distance, participants were asked how much of $100 they would allocate to themselves versus a person at that distance. They made the same decision for their favorite charity. Contrary to previous findings and our predictions, results revealed a significant positive association between age and social discounting rates (p< .01), such that older adults’ generosity declined more with increasing social distance. Age differences remained robust after controlling for demographics. There were no significant age differences in average giving across social distances and in charitable giving, but, regardless of age, charitable giving was higher among those with lower social discounting rates (p< .001). Findings suggest that age differences in social discounting may be sensitive to cultural context.

Pardee RAND Graduate School, Santa Monica, California, United States Previous research has established that older adults are less biased by irretrievable prior investments or 'sunk costs' when making a decisions about continuing a failing project.Such decisions often have implications for other people, but most research to date has focused on individuals making decisions for themselves.Here, we investigated whether age differences in willingness to discontinue a failing project and start over depended upon the intended beneficiary (self or loved one) as well as the type of investment (money or time).Participants (N=1075, Mage=53.49yrs; 56.2% Women) from the American Life Panel responded to an online survey and made hypothetical decisions about a failing project.At all ages, when the project was for oneself, individuals were less willing to discontinue it and start over when money (versus time) had been invested, whereas when the project was for a loved one, willingness to start over did not depend on whether money or time had been invested.The association between older age and greater willingness to discontinue a failing project and start over was stronger when projects were for oneself compared to a loved one.Implications of the findings for understanding aging and decision making in a social context, and strategies for reducing sunk-cost bias in people of all ages are discussed.

AGE DIFFERENCES IN SOCIAL DISCOUNTING AND CHARITABLE GIVING IN A US SAMPLE
Yi Lu, and Corinna Löckenhoff, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, United States Social discounting describes the tendency to show less generosity to more socially distant recipients.With respect to age differences, prior studies (Pornpattananangkul et al., 2019;Lin & Zhang, 2020) found that older adults showed more generosity to distant others (i.e., lower social discounting rates) than younger adults.However, prior research relied on small samples, compared extreme age groups, and focused on Asian countries.To examine generalizability, this pre-registered study examined social discounting and charitable giving in a U.S. adult life-span sample (N = 426, age 18-96, Mage = 50.93,SDage = 19.51,51% female, 61% non-Hispanic White).The social discounting measure was adapted from Jones and Rachlin (2006) and involved five social distances (1, 5, 10, 50, 100) on a 100-point scale (0 = closest, 100 = most distant).For each social distance, participants were asked how much of $100 they would allocate to themselves versus a person at that distance.They made the same decision for their favorite charity.Contrary to previous findings and our predictions, results revealed a significant positive association between age and social discounting rates (p< .01),such that older adults' generosity declined more with increasing social distance.Age differences remained robust after controlling for demographics.There were no significant age differences in average giving across social distances and in charitable giving, but, regardless of age, charitable giving was higher among those with lower social discounting rates (p< .001).Findings suggest that age differences in social discounting may be sensitive to cultural context.

AGE DIFFERENCES IN SOCIAL NETWORK PREFERENCES: IMPLICATIONS FOR DECISION MAKING Tess Wild, and Corinna Löckenhoff, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, United States
Many consequential decisions are made in the context of a social network, but it is not clear how lifespan developmental changes may influence the way people integrate others into their decision-making processes.Research shows that, compared to younger adults, older adults perform less exhaustive pre-decisional information searches, have smaller and more close-knit social networks, and place more value on harmonious relationships (e.g., Hess et al., 2015).Drawing on these findings, a pre-registered survey study examined age differences in the size, composition, and utilization of decision-related social networks as well as subjective goals and perceptions regarding joint decisions.An adult lifespan sample (N = 432; M age = 50.9375;SD age = 19.53267,range age = 18-96 years) considered hypothetical decisions involving specific (apartment, car, physician, and insurance plan) and generic (important vs. minor) scenarios.As predicted, linear regressions revealed that compared to younger respondents, older respondents reported that they would consult fewer people fewer times, and they were less likely to recruit distant social partners or professionals (ps<.05).Contrary to predictions, the tendency to prioritize relationship harmony over decision quality was negatively associated with age (p<.05).Further, there was no significant relationship between age and the perceived helpfulness of involving others.Findings remained robust when controlling for scenario type and demographic characteristics (gender, education level, race, income).This indicates that the size, composition, and utilization of decision-related social networks differs by age.Further research is needed to examine potential implications for decision quality and satisfaction.

THE ADULT DAY CENTER: UNTAPPED TERRITORY FOR AGING RESEARCH
Chair: Tina Sadarangani Discussant: Fei Sun Adult day service centers (ADCs) in the United States are a vital, but overlooked source of community-based long-term care for diverse older adults with multiple chronic conditions, including dementia.The National Institute on Aging has called for more research on ADCs.In this interdisciplinary symposium, we present challenges and opportunities in conducting research in these congregate settings.First, we look at the operating status of ADCs nationally in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic and disparities in access to care using longitudinal data from the National Post-acute and Long-term Care Study.Then we examine the lack of electronic health record utilization and clinical data capture in 4,035 ADCs nationally and discuss strategies to modernize technology in these settings to facilitate data collection.We subsequently present a new database, developed vis a vis an academic/community partnership between the National Adult Day Services Association and researchers, that centralizes and makes data collection feasible in ADCs with limited resources.We will also explore factors supporting intervention research that are unique to ADCs.Finally, we present a protocol adapted for the ADC setting, to test a mobile application that facilitates data collection and enables communication between ADCs, caregivers, and healthcare providers.Our findings show that, while research in ADCs has been limited historically, academic, government, and community partners are working together to spur pragmatic innovations that modernize these settings and better resource them to elevate standards of care.

INTEGRATING ADULT DAY CENTERS INTO THE BROADER HEALTH CARE CONTINUUM: THERE MIGHT JUST BE AN APP FOR THAT Tina Sadarangani, New York University, New York City, New York, United States
CareMOBI is an mhealth application that allows adult day care centers to exchange information with their clients' family caregivers and health care providers.CareMOBI enables adult day center staff, who possesses in-depth knowledge of clients based on their day-to-day observations, to be active members of the care team.This is otherwise challenging in an environment that relies almost exclusively on facsimile and voicemail to communicate with outside providers.CareMOBI was developed to address fragmented communication between adult day centers and outside providers using a user-centered design thinking approach that prioritized the needs of end-users.Results of user-testing, which combined qualitative interviews followed by individual completion of the Technology Acceptance Model questionnaire, show that likelihood of adopting CareMOBI was high among adult day center staff (n=31).CareMOBI was also perceived as having significant clinical value.However, staff expressed a need for training prior to use and expressed confusion over how to embed CareMOBI within their existing workflows.We now present a protocol for implementation that reflects a landscape analysis of resources within ADCs to support technology adoption as well as a stakeholder-led approach to implementation that is responsive to findings from user-testing.

ADULT DAY SERVICES DATA COLLECTION AND OUTCOMES: A NATIONAL STRATEGY REALIZED
William Zagorski, American Senior Care Centers, Inc., Nashville, Tennessee, United States The National Adult Day Services Association (NADSA), in its commitment to advance the development and recognition of adult day services across the United States, has defined a comprehensive set of data points and uniform outcome measures to be utilized throughout the Adult Day Services (ADS) industry.NADSA represents more than 500 unique Adult Day Service Centers (ADSCs) across the country.This project has culminated in the opening of a single national secure data entry portal and repository for the collection of this data free to use for adult day service providers across the country.Prior to its full release in January 2023, the beta testing phase allowed for the utilization of this platform across nearly a dozen states, more than 20 ADSCs and